Who wants to be a millionaire? Five Virginians will win $1M in annual lottery raffle

Five Virginians will start the New Year with a new title: millionaire.

The New Year’s Millionaire Raffle is back, and tickets are on sale at Virginia Lottery retailers throughout the state for $20.

A total of 625,000 raffle tickets went on sale Oct. 31 and will continue until Dec. 31 or until all of them are gone, whichever comes first.

In previous years, tickets have sold out early; players are encouraged not to wait until the last minute.

On New Year’s Day, the Virginia Lottery will announce the winning numbers for five $1 million top prizes, seven $100,000 prizes and 1,000 prizes of $500 each.

The odds of winning the million-dollar prize are 1 in 125,000, the best odds of winning $1 million in any Virginia Lottery game. The odds of winning any prize in the raffle are 1 in 618.

This is the 17th year of Virginia’s New Year’s Millionaire Raffle. In those 17 years, the Virginia Lottery has awarded 53 $1 million top prizes.

Every ticket sold in Virginia’s New Year’s Millionaire Raffle benefits K-12 public education in the Commonwealth.